Harry Potter and the Witch of Destiny
by the Wolf at Bay
Summary: Who is the mysterious Witch of Destiny? Will Sirius ever be free? The answers to these questions and more await inside... multiple pairings that you can just guess at. AU Timetravel. 5th, 6th, 7th years,plus relevant summers
1. A New Term Begins

_Here we go, this is __it__,the__ first chapter of Harry Potter and the Witch of Destiny. I'm so excited, but this one is going to take a while, I have the first three chapters written, over 25 pages! So please have patience, and Review. Thank you. _

It was a very subdued group that returned to Grimmauld Place. The adults thought the children where worried about Mr. Weasley. They were, in fact, worried about Harry and the fact that Moody thought he was being possessed by Voldemort. They all knew from experience that Harry wouldn't deal with that too well; he would bottle up his feelings, pushing away everyone who tried to help him, for fear that he would hurt them in some way. Ginny and Hermione both knew this to be true, and Ron would catch on soon enough. As they entered the house, Harry immediately took off up the stairs, and into the room he shared with Ron. No one went after him; they decided it was best to give him some time alone. They went instead into the library to try to figure out how they would help him.

"Right, I say we just storm in, sit him down, set him straight, and drag him down to dinner if we have to."

Ron naturally wanted to take a blunt force approach, but the two girls thought that a more artful strategy was required.

Ginny may not have known Harry as well as Ron and Hermione, but she knew a lot more about boys then both of them put together, and special as Harry may be, he was still a boy. He needed a woman's touch right now, and Hermione simply wasn't girly enough to handle this. Not that Hermione took that revelation well, Ginny hadn't seen the brunette that angry in years.

Over the next week, Ginny realized just how right she was, as Hermione tried to help Harry, and failed miserably, the more she and Ron tried to reach out to him, the more he withdrew into himself and refused all human contact. Ginny knew that Harry was spending a lot of time locked in with Buckbeak, he seemed to like the Hippogriff, but she didn't tell anyone, Harry needed to be alone right now, and she would give him that. Ginny was worried about spending time alone with an emotionally vulnerable Harry. The problem was that, mush as she hated to admit, she still really liked him, she no longer suffered from the highly embarrassing crush of her younger years, she had matured beyond that. She was happy dating Michal Corner, but deep down, she knew that she would go for Harry in an instant, but she didn't want to be disappointed when he told her he wasn't interested.

Ginny waited for two more days, when Harry showed no sign of improvement, he hardly showed himself at all, she took action. Harry had stuck to a fairly regular schedule over the last week, so it was very easy to sneak into his room just before he went to sleep. Harry walked in, just as predicted, saw Ginny waiting for him, and turned right around to leave.

"Harry James Potter, don't you dare try to leave this room." Her cold tone of voice, and the leveled wand, were incentive enough to keep Harry rooted to the spot.

When Harry finally spoke, his voice shocked Ginny, it was rough and horse, like he hadn't spoken since they had been back.

"I'm not safe to be arou-" He never got to finish the sentence.

"Harry! You are not being possessed by Voldemort. Your not. There's a good reason they call him 'Mad-eye', and it has very little to do with his eyes. If there is one person who could possibly tell you what it's like to possessed by Him, its me. And I'm telling you that your not. "Harry mentally kicked himself; he couldn't believe that he forgot about The Chamber of Secrets, Ginny was right, she would know more about it then anyone else.

"So you don't think I'm being possessed then?" Harry sounded hopeful, which was a step up from the depression of earlier.

"I thought I made that very clear. You. Are. Not. Being. Possessed. Deal with it! Stop being a prat, go get something to eat, and lose to Ron at chess. Now!" Harry looked for a moment like he might argue, but thought better of it; this was Molly Weasley's daughter after all. As he went for the door, he paused and turned to speak for a moment before leaving. "Thank you Ginny." Ginny was beaming as she said, "Your welcome." to the empty room. Even he was too thick to spot it, she still liked him, and she would keep him safe, from afar if need be, until he came around. She just hoped it wouldn't take too long, her brothers were right, she _was _too popular for her own good.

Harry Hermione and the Weasley's spent the remainder of the Christmas holidays at Grimmauld Place, with a delighted Sirius. They visited Mr. Weasley again on Christmas Day, and ran into Neville Longbottom, who was visiting his parents. The whole story came out, how they had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange; at least he wouldn't have to keep the secret anymore. Over the next week Harry played chess with Ron, losing badly, doing research for the D.A. with Hermione, and just enjoying being free for a few day.

Hermione was thrilled for her best friend, she wasn't sure what Ginny had done, but she had been exactly right about Harry. He and Ginny had been smiling at each other rather a lot lately, and Hermione was starting to wonder if something might be going on there. She also had not missed the look on Harry's face when Ginny had kissed Neville on the cheek at St. Mungo's. She sincerely hoped that there was something going on between the two, for Ginny's sake, and Harry's. He needed someone in his life who could handle the emotional turmoil that so often came with him. And Cho could absolutely not, but Ginny had already proven that she could, and very well at that. Ron didn't seem to have noticed anything, but then again, he wasn't famous for picking up on things, especially when it came to girls.

* * *

Whether it was too soon or not soon enough, it was time to return to school. This evoked mixed feelings in Harry, he loved the castle, and couldn't wait to get back to the D.A., but that would also mean being back under Umbridge's thumb, something that Harry was really not looking forward too. The five children, plus two owls, a cat, and five trunks, all somehow squeezed into a car with Lupin and Mrs. Weasley for the trip to King's Cross Station, fortunately it was a short trip.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters looked the same as it always did, and so did the Hogwarts Express, but something was different, there was a subdued nature on the platform, not the excited, jovial atmosphere they were used to. There were also people missing, by the time everyone had Hugged Mrs. Weasley goodbye, and gotten on the train, it was obvious that at least fifty people weren't on the train. Most of their friends were there, and no one from the D.A. seemed to be absent, but there were definitely people missing. Harry was wondering why they had decided not to come back, he put it down to Umbridge's tyranny, the Ministry's slander against Dumbledore, or they had murdered by Voldemort. He hoped there weren't too many of the second and third, not that the first was any better.

Harry was distracted from his comtemplation on other students whereabouts when his eyes fell on one particular student, a certain redhead, who managed to catch his eye for the first time.

Ginny was sitting against the window, her feet were tucked under her, and she was uncharacteristically buried in a book, that was usually Hermione. He momentarily mused that she looked almost like a cat sunning herself, but that wasn't why she held his gaze. It was the way the sun coming through the window caught in her mane of fiery hair, reflecting of the lighter highlights, he'd never really appreciated just how vibrant and beautiful her hair was before today, or how warm and soft her chocolate brown eyes seemed to be. Every so often she would unconsciously wet her lips, and Harry felt the very strong, very unusual urge to kiss her, a lot. He fought this urge, though he didn't know why, and contented himself to sit and watch her, occasionally getting lost in her gorgeous eyes.

Hermione had never had a harder time waiting to do something, almost four hours after they arrived back at the castle she entered the fourth-year girl's dormitory to talk to Ginny. Considering what she had seen on the train, she was amazed that Ginny had not come to her straight away, and expected to see the redhead excited and unable to sit still, or anxious and nervous, anything but the calm, collected girl that sat reading on her bed.

"Oh hello Hermione, something going on?" Ginny asked, noticing the unusual expression on the older girls face.

Hermione was completely dumbfounded for the first time in her life. "Ginny are you kidding me? Why aren't you bouncing off the walls in excitement?"

"What are you on about? Have I missed something?" Ginny was very confused, and wondering what she was supposed to be excited about.

"YES YOU MISSED SOMETHING! Or are you telling me that you didn't notice that Harry was practically drooling over you the whole ride back?" Hermione was flittering between amusement, excitement, and exasperation, as a result she was extremely flushed and hyper.

"Um… no. What?" Ginny was fairly certain that the only time Harry had even looked at her had been in The Chamber of Secrets, and just before Christmas. He had definitely never "drooled over her". Perhaps Hermione had finally lost it, all that studying and obsessing made her snap.

"I'm telling you that Harry didn't take his eyes off you once, the whole way back, and the look on his face, I don't think I've ever seen him look that happy for that long, then, at dinner, you should have seen his face when you left, like Christmas had been canceled." Hermione said all of this very fast, amazed that Ginny hadn't noticed herself.

"Hermione, are you serious? You're not just having me on?" She didn't think Hermione would do that, unless one of her brothers put her up to it.

"No I am not having you on, I'm not one of your brothers, I'm serious, he spent a whole seven hours just staring at you, completely dead to the rest of the world, like nothing else mattered." Harry had spent the better part of four years not noticing Ginny, it looked like he might have finally caught on, and Hermione said as much.

"Bout time too," muttered Ginny "but what do I do now? I don't want to go back to being an immature child with a crush." Ginny was very popular with the male population of the school, but she knew Harry was different then any other boy she knew, very different.

"Well you could always take off your clothes and wait on his bed, I'm sure that would get his atten-" Hermione was cut off by a pillow thrown by the furiously blushing redhead.

"Hermione! I'm being serious, and that wouldn't work with Harry anyway, although you could always try that with R-" Now it was Ginny's turn to be cut off by a pillow from a very red Hermione.

"Yes, yes, point taken, just be yourself, and maybe wear a low-cut top or something if you know you'll be around him a lot." Hermione had given Ginny this advice before, minus the low-cut top part, of course.

"Hmm, but I don't want to spend another four years waiting for him to work it out. Maybe a love potion?" Ginny was kidding, and Hermione knew, but that didn't spare Ginny a lecture.

"Ginny! Love potions are banned at Hogwarts. Besides you don't want to force him into it, and I wouldn't help you brew it anyway." Ginny was not one to take a lecture lightly, especially not one that insulted her intelligence.

"What makes you think I need your help? My grades are just as good as yours ever were, plus I'm better looking." Hermione raised an eyebrow at this, she knew she wasn't the best looking girl around, but hadn't expected Ginny to say something like that in anger.

"Oh come on 'Mione, when's the last time someone spent seven hours staring at _you_?" Hermione managed to keep a straight face for all of ten seconds before bursting out laughing, quickly joined by Ginny.

* * *

Ron Weasley was not as totally ignorant of the world around him as most people thought. He actually noticed rather a lot, even if he didn't let on. In fact it was only when he wasn't paying attention that he did something particularly stupid. The behavior of his best friend on the train had not escaped his notice; he had simply been waiting for the right time to ask about it.

"So Harry, why were you staring at my little sister all day?"

Harry looked up from his potions essay, thankfully able to keep a look of alarm off of his face, amazed that Ron, Ron of all people, had not only noticed, but was asking him calmly about it, and not flipping out.

"I was what?" asked Harry in a futile attempt to play dumb.

"Oh you know, you only spent about seven or eight hours _staring_ at my little sister, drooling slightly."

"I was not drooling!" said Harry a little too quickly and a little too forcefully. Had he really been drooling?

"So you were staring at her then?" asked Ron with his eyebrows raised. Harry though for a moment, and came up with a decidedly Slytherin scheme, for which Ron would hate him when he found out about it.

"You want Ginny single, and away from unwanted attention right?" Ron was utterly shocked by Harry's question, and it never occurred to him that Harry had completely avoided answering him.

"Well I think its time I took a more active part in looking out for our little sister." This shocked Ron even more, if that was possible.

"_Our_ little sister?" he asked tentatively.

"Well I've always thought of you, and to a lesser extent Fred and George, as my brothers, and that makes Ginny my little sister as well." Harry even managed to blush right on queue; Ron was going to buy this one easy. Harry watched Ron's face cycle from shock, to wonderment, to embarrassment, and finally settled on glee.

"This is going to be great Harry, with the two of us working together, we can't fail, at least we haven't yet." Harry didn't think he'd ever seen Ron this happy, even at the World Cup. He mentally flinched at the thought of what Ron would do when he found out Harry's true intentions. But that was far in the future, and for now, Harry was content to sit back and lose yet another game of chess to his adopted brother.


	2. Pink Flamingos and Angry Weasley Women

Michal Corner was up early the first day of classes. He wasn't usually an early riser, but it had been over a week, and he thought Ginny would like being walked down to breakfast by her boyfriend. They had been together for about six months now, and he was getting closer. Ginny was comfortable around him, not as much as he wanted, but for a body like hers, he could wait. Michal settled down next to the portrait of the Fat Lady to wait, lost in thoughts of Ginny's body.

Ginny was up early as well, for a similar, but all together different reason. She was sitting in Harry's favorite armchair by the fire, waiting for him to come down. After what Hermione had had told her last night, the redhead had resolved to keep a closer eye on Harry Potter. After twenty minutes of waiting, she was just about ready to give up and go down to breakfast alone, when Harry and Ron came down the stairs together, discussing something in hushed tones. Harry glanced up, saw her, and for some reason stopped dead, did a double take, and quickly hushed Ron as a blush rose to his face. Ginny wasn't sure what they had been talking about, but clearly they didn't want her to know about it. She fell in with them as they were joined by Hermione, who had just come down the girl's staircase. Harry seemed amused, but please, by her joining them, Ron looked skeptical, but wasn't saying anything, and Hermione winked at her. Harry's expression returned to normal, if a little more content, as he took out the Marauders Map. He opened the map and scanned it quickly, before his eyes went wide and he pulled Ron off to one side.

"He's right outside the Common Room, must be waiting for her." Ron looked slightly confused by Harry's statement, until he took another look at the map.

"Early warning shot?" asked Ron.

"Actually I was thinking something a little more to the point." Answered Harry with a wicked grin. "Distract the girls." Ron nodded and went to stop Hermione and Ginny from leaving the Common Room, while Harry sprinted out of the Portrait Hole, wand at the ready. Neither girl had a clue what was going on, but assumed that Harry and Ron did, therefore they remained stationary.

Harry, meanwhile, had shot out the Portrait Hole, Casting jinxes and hexes as fast he could, which, given his experience, was considerable. Michal never had a chance, as a good twenty or thirty hexes connected squarely with his person, with varied and interesting results. Michal Corner was going to need spend a while in the Hospital Wing, not because Harry had hurt him, but because some hexes, when mixed together, have unpredictable, debilitating results. Harry called Dobby who managed to drag off the unconscious Ravenclaw with just moments to spare before Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came out through the Portrait Hole, the latter two demanding to know what was going on.

"Oh yeah, sorry 'bout that, false alarm." Harry tried to sound casual and embarrassed, but didn't really think either girl was fooled. They didn't press him, however, as the four made their way to breakfast and than to classes.

Breakfast in the Great Hall was always interesting, but it had lost the joviality of previous years. Now Harry walked into the Hall every morning dreading another Educational Decree from Umbridge, or some disturbing news in the Prophet. No one had yet received a "your whole family has been killed, sorry" letter, but it was only a matter of time. After helping himself to some toast, Harry began to scan the Daily Prophet for anything interesting. He was just getting to an add for Madam Malkin's, when a strange barn owl landed next to his plate, holding out the letter tied to his leg. Who would be writing to him right after Christmas? The only person outside of Hogwarts who wrote to him was Sirius, and they had only parted company yesterday. Harry took the letter, pushing a glass of water towards the owl, and began to read.

_Dear Harry,_

_Charlie and I were delighted to hear of your new- found interest in protecting our baby sister from her own beauty, she really is too popular. It warms our hearts to know that Ron has the full might of The-Boy-Who-Lived behind him. After all, if you can fight a Hungarian Horntail, a few randy fourth-years shouldn't be much of a problem. So, in short, thank you for helping to watch out for Ginny while we can't, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, you're as good as family._

_-Bill Weasley_

Harry silently handed the letter to Ron, who read it without expression. 'Great,' thought Harry 'now Ron's told the whole family, man they are going to kill me.' He could just imagine what Bill would say when he found out the truth. Ron was looking particularly pleased with himself when he passed the letter back to Harry, who promptly burned, much to Hermione's chagrin.

"Hey! You two have been acting really strange lately, first that thing this morning, now secret letters that you can't even share with me, what's going on? And why can't you tell me?"

Ron and Harry shared a look at what they called 'typical nosey Hermione', before answering "Guy stuff" which only served to further aggravate Hermione.

"Oh? Been trying to work out whether Cho's or my breasts are bigger?" it was almost the hardest thing Hermione had ever done to say that with a straight face, but the looks on the boys faces was worth it. Both of them had their jaws on the floor, and their eyes were threatening to come right out of their heads.

"So," continued Hermione, enjoying herself immensely, "who is it?" She was soon wearing a look nearly identical to Ron's as Harry answered with a perfectly straight face: "You." Needless to say it was a very interesting, albeit embarrassing breakfast for the trio.

By lunch the three were permanently blushing, and wishing to be anywhere else but Hogwarts that morning. Snape, seeming to sense their discomfort, had been particularly unpleasant that morning, taking any and all excuse to dock points from Gryffindor. Worse yet, they had Umbridge right after lunch, the only bright spot on the horizon, apart from the successful ambush of Michal Corner, was the D.A. meeting the following evening. Harry had already had several conversations with various members about what the weekly meetings would be like in the spring. He had even had one awkward conversation with Cho Chang; everything that happened between them seemed to be awkward. He had fared better then usual though, and she had readily accepted his invitation to Hogsmead on Valentine's Day. Although truth be told, Harry wasn't as excited as he might have been. But he couldn't rush things like that, he needed to keep up appearances, besides, he owed Cho a talk about Cedric. Harry was by no means looking forward to that, but it needed to happen.

Harry didn't know exactly what he was going to do with the D.A., he knew everyone wanted to start on The Patronus Charm, but he had doubts about his ability to teach such an advanced charm. He also didn't want anyone to get discouraged when they couldn't do it, most adult witches and wizards couldn't do it, but everyone would still be disappointed. That was one of the many things Harry loved about the D.A., he didn't expect perfection from his friends, they already expected it from themselves.

Ginny was having a large amount of difficulty in charms. They were working on Banishing Charms, the opposite of the Summoning Charm, but her mind was far from the Charms classroom, she was thinking about what had happened that morning. Harry and Ron had been conversing very suspiciously, and then Harry had run off with his wand out. Two hours later, Ginny had learned that her boyfriend was in the Hospital Wing, having been severely hexed while waiting for her outside Gryffindor Tower.

There were two possibilities, one horrible and one fantastic. The fantastic, far less likely scenario, was that Harry had fallen madly in love with her, and was horribly jealous of Michal. The horrible, far more likely possibility was that Ron and her other brothers had finally managed to recruit Harry into their campaign to destroy anything even close to a love life that she might have for the next twenty or so years. Either way Ginny was extremely confused, and rather angry at Ron, surely the entire thing was his fault, Harry was much more mature then that. If only she knew the irony.

To say that Harry was outraged was an under statement, to say that he was madder then anyone had ever seen him before was more accurate, but still inadequate. His friends were genuinely scared, if Harry lost his temper, it would be bad for all involved. The reason for Harry's new personal record was, of course, Umbridge. News that Harry Potter and Cho Chang were going on their first date together had spread through the school like wildfire, and that included the teachers. Once Umbridge had found out she had given him detention for the entire weekend, for sneezing too loudly in her class one day. Not even Snape had ever done anything that outrageous, and that was saying something. Hermione was practically begging him to appeal to the Headmaster, but Harry stubbornly refused.

"It'll only make her worse if she finds out she's getting to me, I'm not giving the old toad the satisfaction. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to call in a favor with Fred and George."While Hermione warned him against doing anything too irresponsible, Ron was deathly curious to know why Fred and George owed him a favor, and voiced his question.

"Well I may, and I stress may, have given them a thousand Galleons to start a joke shop." Harry said the second part very quickly as if that would somehow make admitting it easier. It took a full three minutes for Hermione to regain her powers of speech, another new record for the day. Both her and Ron were outraged that Harry had given the twins so much money, though for different reasons.

"Mom's going to kill you when she finds out." Ron informed him a little too cheerfully, making Harry's stomach drop. Mrs. Weasley's temper was legendary.

"I mean," continued Ron "she might even forget that she never, ever, yells at you."

"Yeah, our dear mother's never yelled at you, has she Harry? How do you get so lucky?" The twins had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and joined the conversation.

"Gred! Forge! I was just looking for my two favorite pranksters." Harry exclaimed, thinking that finally his luck might be changing, at least he wouldn't have to go looking for the twins.

"Well how may we be of service Harry?" asked Fred, or was it George?

"Do what you do best. Prank. Umbridge. Mercilessly."

Harry paused deliberately between each word to make sure he got his point across. Fred and George looked like Christmas had come early, snapping to attention and firing off mock salutes, they headed off towards Gryffindor Tower, already plotting the High Inquisitor's downfall.

Fred and George's dedication to the task Harry had set them became apparent that evening at dinner, when Umbridge suddenly burst into feather, a fat canary taking her place. Harry was just as shocked as everyone else, he had expected the twins to take their time and start big, but it liked like they were going to start small and work their way up.

Harry turned his attention back to his plans against Ginny's current boyfriend. He and Ron had been working quite hard on these various plots and schemes, causing Hermione to comment that if they put that much effort into their school work, they would get twelve O.W.L.'s each. Hermione still had no idea what they were up to together, and they could tell that it was driving her crazy not knowing. She mostly assumed that it was the prank war Harry had started against Umbridge.

"Do you think we could Hermione in on this? I mean we've always been able to count on her before"

Harry pondered Ron's question for a couple if minutes before answering. It really was a difficult choice, on the one hand, Hermione had always helped them before, on the other hand, they had never done anything this petty before. No, Hermione would definitely not approve, she would most likely tell Ginny, or worse yet, figure out what was really going on.

"Nah I don't think Hermione would really understand, no way Hermione would agree with us, she'd run right off to tell Ginny, or worse, your mum."

"Yeah I guess your right," replied Ron "and we definitely don't want mum finding out about this." Ron gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of his mother finding out what they were up to. "This was its just like old times isn't it? Just you and me, no life or death consequences, makes for a nice reminder of our younger years.

"No life or death consequences? Ginny will bloody murder us if she finds out what we're up to. This is the most deadly, dangerous thing we've ever done." Harry then looked around to ensure no one was close enough to here them, and both boys returned to the planning of Operation Pink Flamingo.

_A/N-- Special thanks to the NYMA Raider team, Task Force Charlie, for all the help in picking code names and such. NYMA RAIDERS HOOAHHH!!!!_

To say that the youngest, and in many minds best looking, Weasley was upset would the understatement of the century. Fuming might be better, or perhaps furious. Ginny had just come from the Hospital Wing, where Michal had confirmed her suspicions that it had, in fact, been Harry that had attacked him. As Ginny really doubted that Harry had suddenly fallen madly in love with her, Ron must have finally succeeded, and now they were working together to ruin her life. It wasn't her brother's interference that upset her, she expected little better from Ron, but she had at least hoped that Harry would be mature enough to respect her. But from what Hermione had told her, Harry was actually taking the lead, and was not just helping him. The fact that she was excited about Harry being protective of her only served to fuel her anger. She just wished it was because Harry wanted her for himself, and not because he thought she a helpless child.

Harry looked up from his homework, he had and Ron had put Pink Flamingo as the Common Room filled, to find a terrified looking Neville Longbottom running towards him. He immediately assumed the worst, as it looked like Neville had just run several miles.

"Neville what's wrong? What's happened?"It took a few seconds for Neville to be able to speak, but once he did, his words caused Harry's blood to chill.

"G-G-G-Ginny, she's coming here… looking for you… and Ron… Hospital Wing… really mad… RUN!" Neville just barely managed to pant out his warning, it seemed he had run all the way from the second floor to warn them.

Harry and Ron's brains had just communicated to the rest of their bodies that they should run, but it was too late. The Portrait Hole slammed open, and it stomped, one very angry, very pretty redhead. Despite his impending doom, Harry couldn't help but notice the way Ginny's anger accented her natural beauty. Her eyes were almost glowing, her cheeks were flushed, and her hair was splayed out over her shoulders like curtains of fire. The flush in her cheeks rose, as did the intensity of her eyes, then the damn broke.

"ARE YOU TWO COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR BLODDY MINDS? HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY BOYFRIEND!!! I AM NOT A CHILD, I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF MYSELF! JUST BECAUSE NEITHER OF YOU HAS EVER HAD A PROPER DATE. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS, EXCEPT HOW TO AVOID THEM! JUST WAIT UNTILL I TELL MUM, I BET SHE SENDS YOU ANOTHER HOWLER!"

Fortunately they were spared any further tirade when Ginny seemed to run out of steam, and stomped off up to the girl's dormitory, the portraits rattling in their frames with each step she took. This had been ten time worse the anything Harry had witnessed from Mrs. Weasley, and a quick glance at Ron confirmed that he had never been that thoroughly chewed out either.

Ginny's minor explosion had seriously upset Harry, he had never considered the possibility that they might be really upsetting Ginny's feelings, what if she ended up hating him? He could only hope that everything would work out in the long run, because it was going to a very long one.

Just how hard became apparent at breakfast the next morning, when a familiar, tired, tattered looking owl dropped a blood-red letter in front of him and Ron. Harry immediately dove under the table, while Ron attempted to flee the Great Hall on foot. Neither of them was fast enough, but Harry doubted that anything could have blocked out Mrs. Weasley's magically modified voice.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY, HARRY JAMES POTTER! ARE YOU BOTH OUT OF YOUR MINDS? ATACKING ANOTHER STUDENT JUST BECAUSE HE'S DATING YOUR SISTER! OF ALL THE STUPID, IMMATURE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE OVER THE YEARS, THIS IS THE WORST, I MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS FROM FRED OR GEORGE, BUT I EXPECTED BETTER FROM THE TWO OF YOU! IF I HEAR SO MUCH AS A SLIGHT RUMOR THE YOU, OR HARRY, I DON'T CARE HOW JEALOUS HE IS, HAVE BUTT INTO YOUR SISTER'S LIFE AGAIN, YOU WILL BARELY LIVE TO REGRET IT!

The envelope finished screaming at them and burst into flames, destroying the remains of Harry's breakfast. Harry himself was still halfway under the table, in shock, horrified shock, at Mrs. Weasley's last words. He was never going to live this down, ever. Ron was also frozen in place, nearly at the doors, with an identical look of horrified shock on his face, but for a slightly different reason. He was used to his mother's yelling, so it didn't affect him that much, but her remark about Harry being jealous of Ginny's boyfriend had struck a nerve, especially since it made sense. Harry had been a lot more interested in Ginny lately then ever before, and anxious to see her single. Ron spared a glance towards his little sister, who was looking so smug it must be making Malfoy jealous, and that was saying something. Ron thought that she probably hadn't registered the last sentence yet, or she would be blushing furiously, as she always did when anyone mention her previous crush on Harry. He was not disappointed, his sister was soon blushing furiously, as was Harry. Ron took another glance around, and his eyes found Michal Corner, who seemed mixed between fury and fear that Harry Potter was after him. Harry was going to be enduring a tremendous amount of teasing after this, and a lot of awkward questions regarding his feelings towards his best friend's sister, the first of which would be from Ron himself. Life was going to be very interesting at Hogwarts for the next few weeks; Apart from the two weeks worth of detention that he and Harry had from Umbridge for interrupting breakfast.


	3. He Did It Again

True to their word, Fred and George took every opportunity over the next week to scathingly humiliate Umbridge at every turn. The yet, by far, had been Thursday's prank, the night Harry and Ron had started their detentions. Fred and George had somehow enlarged Neville's toad, Trevor, to the size of a small horse, then dressed it in a pink cardigan and bow, with the result that it looked exactly like Umbridge. The fact that the pranksters had left Trevor sitting on the Staff Table at breakfast only increased the hilarity. Umbridge was becoming sp paranoid, she could barely walk down a corridor without trying to hex some completely innocent object, for fear that they would attack her, as two suits of armor already had.

While the pranks on Umbridge were enjoyable, and extremely satisfying, Harry and Ron were growing concerned about Operation Pink Flamingo. Nothing was particularly wrong on their end; surprisingly few people seemed to have paid attention to Mrs. Weasley's comment about him being jealous. The problem was that his and Ron's attempts to scare off the Ravenclaw, while working on him, were causing Ginny to dig her nails in deeper, and she was making a habit of kissing him whenever Harry or her brother were in sight. No one missed that looks on Harry's face when that happened, not even Ron, the only one who didn't seem to notice was Ginny.

Harry was trying to put these problems out of his mind, he was in the Room of Requirement, not for a D.A. meeting, but with Cho Chang, trying to make up for the date he would be missing on Valentine's Day. It wasn't as enjoyable as Harry would have thought, the only thing they were able to talk about together was Quidditch, and that could only last for so long. That was how Harry found himself on a couch, with Cho in his arms, snogging passionately. And he was bored! Cho's hands wandered down his back, her nails trailing down his spine. And all he could think about was to wonder if Ginny's nails were long enough to do that, because he was sure it would feel better if she did it. Unfortunately she hated him at the moment, and he wasn't exactly available.

Harry tried not to sigh, if anyone had told him at this time last year that he could be doing _this_, with _Cho_ bloody _Chang_, and be bored, waiting to leave so that he could work on trying to break up and court Ginny Weasley, he would have sworn they were crazy, but here he was. Harry was toying with the idea that maybe he had only liked Cho because Cedric had, and he been jealous of Cedric. He seemed to be developing a habit of that, he just hoped he wouldn't have to watch Michal Corner murdered in order to date Ginny, though it would be worth it. It was really funny, here he was making out with Cho Chang, and he was thinking about almost anything else, if this kept up he would have to break up with Cho before long, which would simplify things anyway, apart from Cho crying. Which she did, a lot, before she started yelling at him.

Contrary to the last time Harry had kissed Cho, this time he was staggering back to the common room, feeling guilty, and shocked, but not confused at all. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, for once, but, as usual, he had no idea how to go about doing it. It might just be time to ask someone for help, but who could he go to with this? Ron? No, Ron would over-react, badly. Hermione? No, Hermione would certainly tell everyone, including Ron. Neither of his best friends could know about this, yet. Sirius? Yes, that was it. He had always been able to go to Sirius for help, why not now? The man had to have some experiance with women and, apart from finding the whole situation hilarious, would appreciate the correspondence. At the very least, it would give Sirius a laugh, and that was a good thing in Harry's book. He resolved to write to Sirius, right after he told Ron and Hermione about breaking up with Cho, their reactions would be fun to watch, although Harry foresaw a great deal of teasing in his future.

"Harry what's wrong?" asked Hermione as soon as Harry entered the common room.

"Oh nothing, I ditched Cho just now, but I'm not upset about it." Answered Harry.

He had been completely wrong about his best friend's reactions. Ron looked wildly amused, but not overly shocked, as Harry had thought he would. Hermione had the same smug look that Ginny had been giving him and Ron lately, and it made Harry wonder just how clever the cleverest witch in Hogwarts was.

_If I ever do get to date Ginny,_ thought Harry, _Hermione will never let me hear the end of it._

He was a little disturbed by Ron's expression, he hadn't thought Ron would catch on; after all it had taken Ron over four years to figure out that he liked Hermione, but it now seemed that Ron had figured out more then Harry wanted him to. He didn't want to risk his friendship, but he couldn't help the way he was feeling about Ginny right now, and he didn't want to. The whole situation was getting too complicated, too fast, he would have to slow down before things got out of hand, hopefully everything would work itself out in time.

"Harry what in the world have you and Ron been doing to Michal Corner?" Hermione was using her Prefect tone, which usually meant that he was in trouble.

"Nothing, why?" asked Harry, doing his best to sound innocent.

Harry had years of experience at lying, especially to yes or no questions, but Hermione was one of those people who always saw right through him when he was lying.

"Don't 'nothing' me; he's almost as paranoid as Umbridge, going around cursing random objects, afraid that they might jump him. I know it's the two of you doing it, Fred and George are busy with Umbridge, and no one else could pull that kind off and not get caught for so long."

Harry took a moment to think be fore answering.

"Hermione, I'm not going to lie to you." He turned away, letting her know that he was finished speaking.

She seemed shocked for a moment, but quickly recovered, and changed topics at the speed of light, trying to catch him off guard.

"Harry is Mrs. Weasley right? Are you jealous because he's dating Ginny?"

Fortunately, Harry had been expecting this question for some time now, and again he revealed how goof he was at lying, and proved, again, that he could not fool Hermione.

"No, Hermione, I'm not." It sounded entirely convincing, but Hermione was known for her tenacity.

"I mean first what happened on the train, then your little campaign against Corner, now you've broken up with Cho, who everyone knows you've liked for over two years. It all just seems a little suggestive."

"Like I said before 'Mione, I'm not going to lie to you." Hermione took the hint this time, as a grin spread across her face, a very smug grin,

"I knew it! And it only took you four years, congratulations! That's much quicker then I expected. You really should tell her you know, she'll ditch Michal in a heartbeat if she finds out that your secretly in love with her."

Harry gave a snort of disbelief at these words.

"Not bloody likely, she furious with me at the moment, more likely to hit me than anything. And don't even think about breathing a word to anyone, especially if they have red hair. I trust you to keep my secrets."

"Of course I wont tell anyone Harry, but you should." The conversation was apparently over, as Hermione headed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Harry had hoped that Hermione wouldn't figure him out so quickly, but he should have known that he could long escape the notice of Hogwart's cleverest witch. She had told him she wouldn't say anything to anyone, but Harry's faith in girls, even Hermione, was not strong when it came to gossip. And if Hermione were tell anyone, Ginny would be one of the first to know, and Ron would not be far behind. He wasn't sure of, and didn't want to think about, Ginny's reaction, but Ron would absolutely kill him for this, especially given that Ron though Harry was helping him keep Ginny away from any boys, or any boys away from her. That fight would be ten times worse the Tri-Wizard Tournament, _Hermione had better not tell anyone._

D.A. meetings were happening with increasing frequency, they were up to three times a week, as Umbridge steadily grew worse, and Fred and George reciprocated. Harry knew that meeting this often was risky, someone was bound to spot a pattern, but it was their only real resistance against Umbridge, the prank war didn't count. Besides, everyone was making remarkable progress. The problem was that Umbridge was giving out detentions like it was going out of style. Gryffindor's were the primary recipients, but the Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's were not spared. Harry had mostly been able to avoid them, but he didn't know how much more of his friends getting detentions for "Breathing too loudly" he could take. Umbridge knew exactly the effect she was having too, because every time she put one of his friends in detention, she would look right at him. The final straw came when Ginny staggered through the portrait hole one night, the back of her hand bleeding rather badly. Harry brought Fred and George up to the fifth year boy's dormitory for a prank-meeting.

"Gred, Forge, my dearly beloved pranksters, terrific job, I love everything you've done so far, and I could ask for more. That being said, I want more. That's why I'm returning this to you, and loaning you this."

If the twins were surprised at receiving back the Marauders Map, it was nothing compared to the shock on their faces when Harry handed them his Invisibility Cloak.

"Wow Harry, so this is how you three always get away with stuff, this is gonna be great, Umbridge wont have a clue what hit her."

The twins hurried from the room, already discussing possible pranks with their new tools. Harry hoped it wouldn't just make Umbridge go that much harder, but Harry had declared war, and war it was. He could take detentions and punishments himself, but he wasn't going to sit back and watch his friends suffer without putting up one hell of a fight.

Harry turned in for bed three nights later, dreading another dream, but giving it up as inevitable, they had been particularly bad this week. There was a heavy door at the end of the corridor, and Harry knew that he wanted whatever was on the other side of the door, but every time he would get close to it, something would wake him up. Tonight it was Ron shaking him violently by the shoulders.

"Harry, Harry, wake up, we have to check the map remember?"

Harry's eyes shot open at those words, how could he have forgotten, he and Ron had overheard Ginny telling one of her friends that she was going to sneak out into the castle tonight, and Harry and Ron wanted to know why. Not that it was hard to figure out. Harry had gotten the map back from Fred and George for the night, and he took it out of his desk draw.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Lines of ink spread out across the parchment, drawing out the familiar map of Hogwarts, with the moving labeled dots that showed the positions of everyone in the castle. Most of the dots were in the house dormitories, Filch was prowling the corridors as always, and Dumbledore was for some reason in The Great Hall, but the only dot Harry was interested in was the one that should have labeled "Ginny Weasley". Should have, but wasn't, only her first name was visible, the "Weasley" was blurred out, as if the map couldn't make up its mind. Harry and Ron exchanged one confused look, and then turned their attention to Ginny's location. She was headed up to the Astronomy Tower, which was a common place for inter-house couples to meet.

A dot labeled "Michal Corner" was headed in the same direction, from the other side of the castle. It was the third dot, however, that made Harry decide to take action. There was no way _that_ person was sneaking up to the tower to meet a girl, and it was not a coincidence that _he _was headed right for Ginny.

"C'mon Ron we've gotta move!"

Harry and Ron tore out of the dorm and down into the common room, through the portrait hole, and out into the castle. Harry knew they didn't have time to worry about sneaking around; all three people had a big head start on them. Once they had reached the sixth floor, ten agonizing minutes later, Harry checked the map again, and saw, to his horror, that the third dot had caught up to the other two, and Michal Corner's dot wasn't moving at all. Ginny's was trying to back away from the third which, Harry guessed, was holding on to her.

So Harry abandoned all pretense of caution and started running all out for the Astronomy Tower.

"C'mon!" he yelled at Ron, who was catching his breath against a wall. It only took a few moments for Ron to rejoin the chase, sprinting off towards his sister.

Ginny Weasley was scared. She hadn't been this scared since her first year. Michal was stunned and the person who had done it was looking at her with pure evil in his cold, grey eyes. Ginny knew that she wouldn't beg or plead, it wasn't in her character, but nor would she lat down and surrender either, if only she had her wand. She took another step backwards, trying to buy more time, to think, for someone to come to her rescue, anything, but it was too late.

Harry fairly flew down the corridors and around corners. More then once his momentum carried him into walls, and Harry knew that he had at least a few bruised ribs, if not broken ones. He had been sprinting for almost another ten minutes, but he continued to run on, energy born of necessity fueling him, fear for Ginny sustaining him. _Nearly there, _he told himself, _only down this hallway and around the corner._ Harry shot around the last corner, and stopped dead, panting hard, disgust etched onto his face, wand in hand.

Ginny was probably even more scared now then she had been in The Chamber of Secrets, this was worse. She prayed for someone, anyone, to find her, for Filch to show up and give her detention, anything to stop this from happening. She could feel rough hands holding her down, hot, rancid breath on her neck. _This is really happening,_ her mind told her, _and Harry's not here to save you this time._ Ginny wasn't sure why she would have expected Harry to save her, it was the middle of the night after all, and Harry had no idea she was out of bed. She forced her mind to think of something else, anything else, as her shirt was ripped open, and she felt his hands touching her. Ginny closed her eyes, resigned to the fact that she was about to be raped, and that there was nothing that anyone could do about it.

Harry took less then a moment to think, any more and he might have lost control of himself. He could cast a nonverbal Banishing Charm, but he felt that a stronger spell was called for. He watched Ginny's eyes fly open at his shouted incantation, as her attacker flew off her and into a wall. Anger started to build up in Harry as he saw Ginny's torn clothes and tear-stained cheeks. The violently red figure marks on the pale skin of her chest were making Harry want to kill someone, and he didn't care who the boy's father was. But she needed him now more then he needed to punish her attacker, he was at her side in an instant, wrapping his arms around her, as she cried into his shoulder.

Ginny couldn't believe it, he had done it again. This was twice now that she had been in an impossible amount of danger, with no means of escape, and her whereabouts completely unknown, and yet, somehow, Harry had managed to save her again. She herself, for the second time in her life, pressed against Harry, crying her eyes out while he comforted her. She had no idea how he had even know she needed rescuing, let alone where to rescue her, but she would worry about that later.

Ron came hurtling around the corner, not sure if he should be relived by what he saw, or concerned. Harry was holding his baby sister, she seemed to be alright, at least physically, but she was crying her eyes out. Well, that was understandable given the circumstances. Ron knew he should go and help them, but his mind was changed as soon as he saw who was lying, unconscious, across the hallway. Harry seemed to have noticed too, because he walked Ginny over to Ron, placing her in his arms, and then turned his want on Ginny's attacker. The only word his best friend spoke was one that Ron had never expected to hear from Harry Potter, and one that chilled his blood, because he knew what it must mean for Harry to be using that curse.

"Crucio!"


End file.
